A Night to Forget
by Crafty Lefty
Summary: After a night of uncorrectable mistakes, Falco is faced with the choice to either eat his guilt, or share it and risk his friendship with the ones he loves most. Rated M for nudity, language, and some adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is my first fanfic posted here. Any constructive criticism is welcome as I am all about making my writing better. This was inspired after a crazy night and discovering some strange pairings the next morning amongst my friends. So I decided to create a somewhat strange pairing of my own. Enjoy!**

Falco's eyes slowly fluttered open as he awoke. Light flooded into his eyes as he tried to figure out where he was. For some reason, he couldn't remember how he had gotten into his own bed. His memories were very fogged. The next thing he noticed was an extreme feeling of nausea and a throbbing headache. He just lay there after he woke, trying to figure out what could make him feel like such crap. Oh, that's right. Alcohol.

Recollections of the night before were beginning to come back. Boredom had begun to overtake the ship with the lack of jobs coming as of late. The team wasn't entirely pressed for money as they had been in the past having just completed a well paying escort mission, but they were still bored nonetheless. So to throw some spice into life, they decided to raid the liquor cabinet. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember much past the drinking games they had started. His last memory was everyone minus Peppy running around the living room of the Great Fox acting totally stupid. Nothing much after that.

Falco could smell the alcohol on his breath. It just made him more ill sitting there smelling it. The scent of booze is always far from appealing the morning after a night of drinking. He started to make his way out of bed to take a long shower and find some aspirin. But when he rolled over and faced the other way, the sight made him freeze completely. There was someone next to him in his bed. At first he didn't recognize the figure. But after the initial shock passed and he looked at the figure more closely, the realization of who it was horrified him. It was Krystal.

At first he thought it wasn't too serious. She was probably as drunk as he was the night before and just collapsed in the first place she found. He had probably forgotten to lock his door, so it was probable that she just walked in and passed out. His mind was slightly at ease, but then he realized that the blue vulpine wasn't wearing a shirt. He then took notice of the feeling in his own extremities. He was naked. Hoping it was still nothing, he drew back the sheets while the vixen continued to sleep. The sight of his own bare form confirmed his original thoughts, and the sight of Krystal's bare form did nothing to alleviate his worries. He quickly pulled the sheets back over the two of them, and then started staring at the ceiling with wide eyes and a rushing mind.

_Oh my fucking Christ, please tell me this isn't what it looks like. Please don't tell me I had sex with my best friend's girlfriend. No. Just no. This can't be right. Maybe we both just stripped because we were so damn drunk. That has to be it. We always do weird shit when we've been drinking. Then she just passed out here because it was the first bed she found. That has to be it. We'd never hook up, no matter how drunk we were. Neither of us would do that to Fox._

The thoughts eased his mind. He knew that Krystal was falling in love with Fox and would never do anything to hurt him. And as much as he refused to admit it, Fox was his best friend and he knew it. He loved the guy more than anyone, and he'd never do anything to knowingly hurt him either, drunk or not.

Feeling a little better, he rolled over to the side of the bed and swung his legs around to plant his feet on the floor. When he did so, his foot landed in something cold, slimy, and very wet. At first, he thought he had just stepped in a puddle of vomit and became a bit more nauseous. But when he looked down, what he saw underneath his foot scared him even more than vomit ever could. It was a condom, and one that had clearly been used.

Falco was frozen in place. He tried as hard as he could to rationalize what he just found, but was having a very difficult time of it.

_Ok, maybe this was here from before. No, definitely not. I haven't seen much action lately. Maybe someone was in here before I came to pass out. Yeah, that has to be it. Fox and Krystal just got horny and came into my room for some weird reason. They were drunk. They had no idea what was going on. Now that's fucking gross, them in my bed. But at least it wasn't me who slept with Krystal. It had to be Fox. But wait, that thing has ribs on it. It's definitely the brand I use. Well, that's not too weird. I doubt Fox would go all the way down to his room to grab a condom when there were some right here, especially if he was shit-faced. He just used one of mine._

Falco's mind was again at ease. It made sense. Fox and Krystal just came in here to get rid of some hormones, and then he left and passed out somewhere else. That had to be it. But then Falco caught a whiff of a familiar scent, his own. Even though classifying seminal fluid wasn't exactly Falco's expertise, he knew that avians and vulpines had to have two different scents. And the one in his nostrils right now was certainly his own. He looked downwards on his own body to see dried fluids on his genital area. This was something he absolutely could not rationalize. He just woke up with no recollection of the night before in bed naked with his best friend's girlfriend who was also naked along with a used condom and semen all over himself. He had only one thought.

…_Shit…_

_

* * *

_

Falco just couldn't function. He sat in the kitchen alone staring into his coffee while contemplating what the situation would bring. His nausea had begun to subside after getting some food in his stomach, and he had taken enough medication to alleviate his headache. But that didn't ease his thought process any. He just simply had no idea what to do or how to handle the situation. He knew he had no idea what he was doing the night before, but that made him feel no less guilty. The knowledge that he betrayed the best friend he has ever had was eating away at his conscience.

As Falco continued to stare into his beverage, Fox walked into the kitchen looking like he had just been hit by a truck. He was wearing a white tank top and a pair of cargo shorts, both extremely wrinkled. He didn't even bother changing out of the clothes he had slept in. Falco could tell who it was, but couldn't bring himself to face his best friend quite yet. Luckily, Fox didn't notice the avian's demeanor as he could barely think with the pounding pain in his head. The vulpine walked over to the counter, found the bottle of aspirin Falco had used earlier, and proceeded to dry swallow four or five of the pills. After throwing two frozen waffles into the toaster, he walked over and sat across from Falco who still hadn't looked up.

"Do you feel like shit too?" Fox asked in a barely audible voice.

Falco still didn't look up. "Yeah, pretty much." He realized he could just play off his unwillingness to address his friend as a severe hangover, and proceeded to do so.

"What the hell did we drink last night?" asked Fox.

"Umm…a lot," replied Falco.

Fox couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the remark. "Ain't that the truth."

The toaster beeped behind the table and Fox slowly got up to retrieve his breakfast. As he was walking away, Falco finally found the nerve to look up at his captain. Fox looked like shit, more so than the avian did earlier that morning. His eyes were barely open and had dark circles underneath of them. He was clearly very sick and in no shape to do anything at the moment. Falco couldn't say anything to him with the vulpine being in the condition he was. He had to wait until they both had fully recovered before he could say anything.

Just then, the door opened and in walked the cerulean vixen, Krystal. She was in equally bad shape has Fox, with her clothes even more mussed up. Falco had dressed her in the clothes of hers that he found on his floor, knowing that the vixen would be horrified to wake up in his bed completely nude. He didn't want her to suspect anything, assuming that she had no recollection of the previous night. She definitely didn't appear to be in any such shape.

She groggily walked over to the counter next to Fox and snatched on of the waffles out of the toaster. She shoved it into her mouth and lethargically chewed on the poorly cooked morsel. While she continued eating, she made her way over to the table where Falco was and sat down across from him. The avian's eyes had returned to his coffee, unwilling to look her in the eyes.

Krystal didn't even say anything after she sat down. Falco feared that she had some idea of what had happened the night before, and was not speaking to him because of it. Steeling his nerves, he looked up into the vixen's face. She met his eyes and just stared at him blankly while continuing to chew.

"How are you feeling?" asked Falco.

"Like shit," was all that the vixen replied with.

"Remember anything from last night?"

"I remember my eighth drink, and Fox doing body shots off of me, and nothing else after that." This brought some relief to Falco's thoughts. She had no idea what happened. He made a conscious effort to remove all of the evidence that he had found so that Krystal could not reach the same conclusions he had. She had no idea.

As Falco thought about this, the vixen spoke up. "So why did I wake up in your bed this morning?"

Falco just shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I woke up next to the toilet in my bathroom. I don't even remember leaving the living room last night."

Fox sat down next to Krystal with his waffle and some coffee and joined the conversation. "Wait, you woke up in Falco's room? When the hell did you go there?"

Krystal shook her head. "I have no freaking idea. I really don't. At least all my clothes were still on this morning."

Fox laughed a bit. "Yeah, that definitely would be a problem."

Falco glanced between the two of them. The irony of the conversation was just sickening.

* * *

Falco opened the door of his bedroom and peered both ways down the hall to make sure no one saw him. It was unlikely though. Everyone had locked themselves away in there rooms. Fox, Krystal, and Slippy were all still badly hungover and Peppy knew better than to interact with the crew after a night of drinking.

He made his way down the hall as quietly as he could. Guilt had gotten the better part of him for the entirety of the day and he could simply not stop thinking about what had happened with Krystal. Worst of all, he still wasn't sure exactly what happened. That's why he had to find out and try and set his mind at ease.

The doors opened and Falco stood in the entranceway to the bridge. He made his way over to one of the computer terminals and began to type. The software he was accessing was the memory bank for all security footage taken in the Great Fox. He knew this would provide some answers even if they were answers he didn't want to face.

Falco looked on the time stamp of the video he had just brought up. It was the pervious night at 9:16 p.m., not long after they began drinking. He switched the camera over to the living room where the previous night's shenanigans had taken place. The events transpiring were nothing too serious. Falco and Slippy were playing a game of pong against Fox and Krystal. He remembered that, so it wasn't too far into the night. The figures on the screen began to move more rapidly as Falco pressed the fast forward button. He could only watch the events in a blur, but he couldn't help but laugh at them. The whole crew was acting totally ridiculous and nonsensical, but that would be expected once alcohol entered the equation.

He switched back to regular speed when he noticed something peculiar at 2:24 a.m. Fox had passed out on the floor of the living room, totally unconscious. Slippy was clumsily attempting to pick up the vulpine and carry him. After a few minutes of failed attempts and much struggle, the toad had his captain slung over his back and was walking out of the room. Falco switched the camera to the hallway and continued to watch Slippy stumble down the hallway with Fox still in his arms.

After turning down a few more hallways, the toad stopped out front of Fox's room and opened the door. He then proceeded to pull the vulpine off of his shoulders and into his arms and then promptly dropped Fox on the floor inside the room. Falco couldn't help but laugh at the situation. This was just too funny. After Slippy closed the door, he stumbled his way a few yards down the hallway before dropping to his knees. His face then stuck the floor with an audible thud and the toad ceased to move. Falco was laughing even harder. He just wished he could have seen that in person.

He fast-forwarded on the same camera about half an hour to make sure that the two did nothing else. Fox's door stayed closed and Slippy remained unconscious. Apparently, that was where they ended up passing out.

Falco rewound the camera back to 2:24 a.m., and switched back to the living room, to see only him and Krystal there. They were both just sitting on the couch talking, each with a bottle in hand. Falco had turned the audio off. He had no idea what they were saying, but then again, he probably wouldn't like the sound of himself completely drunk. He fast-forwarded some more until the two figures in the video started moving. He switched it back to normal speed to see Krystal on all fours on the couch slowly crawling over towards the avian. He switched the audio on to hear what was happening.

"-ever told you how daaaaaamn sexy you are?" said Krystal. Her words were terribly slow and quite slurred, clearly indicating her intoxication. This was going to lead to trouble and Falco knew it.

The bird on the screen didn't answer. He just stared at the vixen slowly making her way towards him.

Krystal said, "I really like you. You are waaaay better looking than Fox. You got more muscleeees, and soooo much cuter. I want you to show me what you've got"

The recorded Falco answered, "What's that mean?" He was clearly equally intoxicated from his labored speech.

"This," said Krystal as she proceeded to fully grope Falco's crotch. The bird's eyes widened as he sat there watching the two figures on the screen. She wasn't stopping. And he wasn't stopping her either. In fact, it looked like he was enjoying it. This was definitely something Falco didn't want to watch.

He hit the fast forward button and watched as the figures on the screen proceeded to make out. A lot. They left the couch and went over to the small bar in the corner, continuing to make out on top of it. Then on the floor, and against the wall, and on the windowsill, and then back to the floor again. Falco felt very nauseous while watching all of this, and it wasn't because of his hangover. Just when he thought it would never end, he watched his recorded self pick Krystal up in his arms and carry her out of view of the camera. He switched to the hallway camera, noting the time stamp. It was 3:56 a.m.

_Holy shit. We made out for a solid hour and a half._

This just upset Falco. He was somewhat amazed that they were doing that for so long without shedding any clothing. He watched the video of himself clumsily carrying Krystal down the hallway in the direction of his bedroom. What would normally have been under a two-minute stroll became a ten-minute awkward process with the alcohol flowing through his veins. When he reached the door, he opened it and hit Krystal's head on the wall as he entered. The door closed behind them, and the scene was cut off.

Falco both wanted to and didn't want to watch the video from that time in his room, just to see undoubtedly what happened. But he couldn't even if he wanted to. All the security footage from the crew's rooms was kept locked for privacy reasons. The only way to access the videos was for at least half of the crew to enter their access codes. This was so that the footage would still be able to be accessed in case of an emergency of any sort.

But watching it was pretty unnecessary. He just watched himself and Krystal express their clear desire for each other for an hour and a half and then seclude themselves in his bedroom. And with a used condom and no clothes found the next morning, it was pretty certain what happened. To be sure, he switched back to the hallway where Slippy and Fox were passed out. He fast-forwarded all the way to 10 a.m. where Fox was seen leaving his room in the abysmal state he was found in the kitchen that morning. And Slippy was still passed out on the floor. Neither of them moved at all during the night.

There was nothing else Falco could do to deny it. It was indisputable. He had sex with Krystal.

**A/N: There will likely only be one more chapter to this story. My original plan wasn't to get too in-depth, seeing as how this was largely experimental. Again, please leave some feedback whether you like it or not.**


	2. Chapter 2

Two days had passed since Falco discovered the truth. His interaction with the crew was minimal because of his guilt. He secluded himself in his room for the majority of days, only coming out for essentials such as food. When asked what was the matter, he just said that he was still feeling sick from their wild night. He just needed some time to recover was all. And while that was true, what he needed recovering from was something that none of the crew knew about.

Falco had a choice to make. He could either remain silent, and hope that his feelings of betrayal would pass, or he could let if off of his chest and risk his best friend's trust. The options were overwhelming, both having severe pros and cons.

_So let's say I told him. What would he do? Yell a lot. Probably punch the wall, maybe me. No, probably me. Ok, I could deal with that. I'd get over it. But how would he treat me? Would we ever be friends again? I mean, it's not like it's my fault. I had no idea. And Krystal is kind of to blame too. She started it. Ok, stop that. Logic like that isn't going to help. What if I didn't tell him? No one would know, and life carries on. But can I live with myself? What happens if we go drinking again? Would Krystal come on to me again? God, I hope not. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I couldn't deal with that. Hell, I can barely deal with this now. Seriously, I have to tell him. I couldn't live with myself I didn't. He has the right to know. Krystal too. I guess I'm gong to have to say something._

The avian just knew he couldn't keep this a secret forever. It'd never stop haunting him. He had to tell Fox, but now he just had to formulate a plan to go about doing it...

* * *

It was about 1 a.m. the night of that same day. Fox was awake and in the kitchen with his midnight snack. He had always been a night owl, unlike most of the rest of the crew. Falco was the only other one who was ever up that late.

The doors opened as Falco entered with his eyes to the floor. He still found it difficult to look Fox in the eye without becoming visibly upset. The vulpine looked up from his sandwich to see the avian still in somewhat bad condition standing before him.

"Hey. Feeling any better?" asked Fox.

Falco continued diverting his line of sight away from his captain. "Sorta…" was all he managed to say.

Fox was worried. No one ever had sickness from drinking a full 2 days after the fact. Something else seemed to be wrong with Falco, but he couldn't begin to fathom what it was.

"Take a seat. Let's talk," said Fox as he pushed out the chair across from him with his foot under the table. After a moment of hesitation, Falco made his way over to the table and sat down across from him.

Fox expressed his concern for his friend. "Are you ok dude? You've looked like shit the past few days. If you need to hit up a doctor or something we can find one."

Still without looking at Fox, the avian said, "No. Listen, there…there's something I need to tell you."

Fox became even more worried. The tone in Falco's voice was much more serious than he anticipated. He suddenly was worried for the safety of his friend and was afraid something serious had happened.

Trying to be as sympathetic as he could, Fox said, "Yeah, of course, man. What's up?"

The vulpine's concerned tone only intensified the knot in Falco's stomach. But he couldn't back out now. He had to say it.

"Remember…remember when Krystal said she woke up in my bed that morning?"

Fox was confused. "Yeah…why?"

"Well…I was in it too…"

Fox wasn't sure what was going on. He couldn't figure out what his best friend was trying to tell him.

"Well…alright. I mean, we were all really drunk, dude. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything."

"No…it does. We…didn't…have any clothes on."

Fox was very startled. His mind tried to rationalize it and Falco could tell. The avian knew he just had to come out and say it already. He finally managed to look up into Fox's eyes. But as he did so, a tear left his own.

"Fox…there was a condom on the floor…Listen, I'm so sorry," Falco began stammering. "I am so fucking sorry. You have no idea how fucked up this is." The tears began to roll consistently out of the bird's eyes as he frantically tried to apologize. "I had no idea what the fuck happened. I feel like fucking shit for this…" Fox began to shut out the bird's rambling apology as his thoughts centered around what he just heard. He was barely even listening to Falco anymore as he continued talking. "I didn't think I could do it, I really fucking didn't. But I looked at the tapes. It happened. Fox, you have no idea how bad I feel about this. I've been wanting to just jump in my ship and leave since it happened. I can't believe this and you have no idea how fucking bad…"

The bird's words were cut short from the ear-shattering sound of Fox's fists slamming into the table, completely shattering the plate in front of him.

In his rage, all he managed to barely even whisper was, "What…"

"…Fox…I am more sorry than you'll ever know…really…"

What was left of the plate and sandwich went hurling through the air across the room before crashing into the opposite wall. The venomous raging look in the captain's eyes was more than enough to make Falco freeze in place.

"WHAT…did you just say to me?!"

The tears continued flowing down Falco's face. He couldn't muster the strength to say anything. The look in the bird's eyes truly expressed how bad he felt, but Fox didn't care. He was too angry that his best and most trusted friend violated the one he was falling in love with. Words could not express how much he hated that bird right now.

Without warning, Fox's right hand left the table and in the blink of an eye struck the side of Falco's face with a sickening crack. The punch sent the bird falling from his chair and onto the floor.

Falco never saw the punch coming, but somehow knew the conversation would end this way. He just lay there on the floor, head barely above the tile. He could taste the blood forming in his mouth, but still refused to move. He was too afraid of what Fox would do next. He could hear the labored, angered breathing coming from above him and saw the shadow looming over his body.

"Don't…fucking talk to me…ever…"

And with those heart-wrenching words, Fox stormed his way out of the kitchen leaving Falco to lie on the floor in a slowly-forming puddle of his own tears.

* * *

Falco exited the doors from the medical bay. There wasn't much he could do there to mend a fractured jaw. All he could do was take a whole bunch of painkillers and wait to arrive at a hospital. He had already set the ship's coordinates to the closet one, knowing that none of the crew was likely to object.

As he sullenly walked down the hallway towards his bedroom, he couldn't help but hear voices. Down an adjacent hallway, he could hear someone yelling. Without even stopping to listen, he knew it was Fox. Hoping he wasn't doing anything too irrational, the avian made his way towards the sound of the voice.

Falco eventually found the source of the yelling, and discovered it to be coming from Krystal's bedroom. The door was open a crack, and the avian peered inside, being very careful not to be seen.

Krystal was sitting on her bed with the covers clutched to her torso. She clearly had no idea what was going on. Tears were running down her face from both fear and heartbreak. Falco started listening to just what Fox was saying, and was slightly horrified with what he heard. He just kept calling her terrible things, like a whore and a slut, and Falco swore he heard Fox use the unnamable c-word at least once. This was unbelievable. Never had Fox's temper been pushed to such limits. Falco was quite afraid for Krystal's safety and was about to interject when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to see Peppy, still half asleep but worried at the same time.

"Falco. What's going on here? What happened?"

It was extremely difficult for the avian to talk with his jaw being in the state that it was. So he just removed the hand he had supporting it to show Peppy the side of his face. The older hare could tell from the swelling and bloodshot eye that Falco's jaw was broken, but was still startled nonetheless. His eyes grew wider as he looked into Falco's eyes looking for answers, but only found fear.

Peppy moved to look past the bird and into the room at what was transpiring before him. Both what he saw and what he heard enraged him. From what he could tell, Krystal was being completely victimized by Fox's blind anger and Falco had already been afflicted by the same. Trying to piece together the puzzle, he knew what he had to do.

Peppy turned to look Falco square in his worried eyes and said, "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

With that, the hare opened the door and made his way into the room, not being noticed by either of the two vulpines inside. Krystal was too scared and Fox was too angry to notice their mentor's presence.

Peppy shouted, "Excuse me Fox, but what the FUCK do you think you're doing?!"

Falco was now even more scared. He could only remember exactly two times when he heard Peppy swear during their long time together. This was serious. He remained outside the room looking in, not wanting Fox to take his anger out on him any further.

When Fox heard the voice behind him, he slowly turned, focusing his anger on a new target. The fire in his eyes raged just a bit brighter. He saw Peppy standing there with his arms crossed firmly in place. He had a firm look of distaste on his face and was clearly unhappy with what was happening.

Fox's voice lowered significantly. "What am I doing? I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm trying to figure out why the god damned HELL the girl I'm in love with is sleeping with my best friend!!" He began shouting again. "They fucked each other Peppy! The other night, when I was passed out, they fucked behind my back! The girl I'm in love with and my best friend just fucking had sex with each other!! Do you have any idea what that feels like?!"

Peppy remained calm and firm. "No, but I promise you I've been far more angry than you are right now. But if you don't cool down right now, this isn't going to end well."

"What do you mean it's not going to end well?! It's already ended fucking horribly! My best friend and my girlfriend both betrayed me at the same time! How could this possibly end up going any worse?!"

"Because if you don't calm yourself, you're going to lose both of them. Is that what you really want?"

"Of course it's not what I want! But it's not like I have much of a choice because they both decided that I don't matter to them anymore!!"

"Fox, you idiot. That couldn't be further from the truth and you know it. You were just as drunk that night and you had no idea what was going on. Do you think they did? Just look at her, Fox. Can't you tell she's sorry?"

"I don't care if she's sorry or not! She still fucked Falco!! I can't ever forgive something like that!!"

"Well, if you want to keep the people that matter most to you in your life, you'd better hurry up and get over it. People make mistakes, and if everything everyone ever did was held against them, no one would ever get along with anybody."

Fox was at a loss for words. He had just simply had enough of this situation. Without saying anything else, he stormed past Peppy and out of the room. He didn't even notice Falco right outside the door as he angrily slammed the door shut and made his way down the hallway towards his own bedroom.

With the enraged vulpine gone, Falco slowly opened the door to meet Peppy inside the room. Falco still couldn't speak, both from his jaw and his emotions. The older hare slowly made his way over to the avian with gentle eyes and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen Falc, he's going to get over this. Just give him a few days. Trust me. He's mad as all hell, but it'll pass. He just has to come to terms with the fact that neither of you were responsible. Just…leave him alone for a while. When he wants to talk, he'll come find you. Are you going to be ok?"

A single tear slowly made its way down Falco's cheek as the bird began to nod. He looked up at Peppy and signified the uncertainty of his answer, but he still knew it would be ok in the end. Peppy smiled lightly.

"Good. Now just try and get some sleep. We'll be at the hospital before you know it."

And with that Peppy made his way out of the room and back to his own quarters. Falco stared at the floor. He was still heartbroken, and he knew he would be until Fox talked to him. This was going to be an unpleasant next couple of days. A light sniff brought him out of his thoughts as he looked up to see Krystal still crying on her bed.

The avian made his way over to her and sat down next to her on the mattress. They both shared a worried glance for a moment.

Krystal said, "Did it really happen?"

Falco just nodded in affirmation. The vixen dropped her head down slightly and buried her face in her hands. She began to cry harder, now knowing it was true. Falco brought his arms up and around her pulling her into an embrace. She cried into his chest completely grief stricken with the situation. She felt just as terribly as he did.

Falco knew this would all be behind them eventually. His only hope was that everyone would be able to forget it eventually and it would not even be a memory. Unfortunately, he knew that something like this would not be forgotten easily. As Krystal continued to cry he looked up and out of the window at the stars outside. They each were in view for a few seconds before vanishing out of view, leaving just as quickly as they came. Falco could only hope that this situation would be the same.

Fox was his best friend, and the thought of losing that hurt more than anything. Falco wanted nothing more than to be able to go back to that night and just stop himself from doing what he did. But this was the here and now. All he could do was pick up the shattered pieces and carry on…


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So I couldn't help but feel that I needed a conclusion and a few readers thought the same. So this just serves to tie up the loose ends. Comments and criticism are more than welcome.**

It had been three days since Fox's explosion. The atmosphere around the ship was overall a depressing one since then. Falco only had to spend a day in the hospital thanks to some new bone regeneration enzyme that was just commercially introduced. Fox spent most of these days in his room, coming out only to eat and visit the training room. Peppy looked in on him once to try and see how he was handling the situation. He had never seen Fox train so hard in his life. The captain clearly had a lot of anger left, but at least he was taking it out on the training equipment instead of his crew.

Falco and Krystal were still quite glum. They both knew that what happened was basically out of their control, but still felt guilty. Krystal wished she had stopped sooner. She always knew it was a bad idea to let alcohol get the better of her, but never stopped herself for some reason. Falco just blamed himself. He knew it wasn't his fault, but just wished he had been able to stop himself. They sat in the kitchen together over lunch, trying to make more sense of the situation.

Krystal said, "So you know this wasn't our fault right?"

Falco looked up from his salad, "Yeah, but I just can't help but feel like I could've stopped it. I mean, you saw the tape. I could've just gotten up and left when you came on to me."

"And I could've just not come on to you at all. We were both drunk as shit Falco. You saw it. I let Slippy do a body shot off of me. Slippy! Do you think I would have done that if I knew what was going on?"

Falco couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "Yeah, I guess not."

"Exactly. You need to get off it. Listen, I know Fox. He's going to get over it. He's a pretty rational person. He'll realize that this wasn't either of our faults. We don't even remember it, so it's not like we enjoyed it. "

"Right," replied Falco. He suddenly had a thought after she said that. "You ever heard the phrase drunken words speak sober thoughts?"

Krystal stopped for a moment. "Yeah…"

"Why did you come on to me in the first place? It came out of nowhere."

Krystal looked down into her sandwich. "Dude, I don't know. Like I said, we were both really drunk. I couldn't tell you what I was thinking."

"You sure about that?" Falco asked. "You seemed pretty intent on me because it was me, not because I happened to be in the room."

Krystal stopped eating and looked up at Falco. "Fine. But if a word of this leaves this room, I swear to god I'll rip your balls with my bare hands."

Falco laughed, "Deal".

"I think you're hot. Don't get me wrong, I think Fox is too. Difference is you're an asshole. Fox isn't. That's why I'm dating him and not you. I guess my hormones just got the better of me. But why didn't you stop me? Seemed like you were guilty of the same thoughts to me"

"Have you ever met a guy who didn't think you were hot? Really."

Krystal thought for a moment before realizing that the answer was no.

"And thanks for calling me an asshole by the way."

Krystal laughed, "Any time."

The two continued to talk, both feeling a bit better about the situation. Just as they were about to finish their food and leave, Falco looked over Krystal's shoulder, only to quickly revert his eyes back to his food. Puzzled, Krystal turned around to see Fox making his way into the room. Not yet wanting to confront her boyfriend, she turned back around and focused on her lunch before he saw her.

Fox entered the room to see Falco and Krystal sitting across from each other at the table. He almost wanted to shout something about them becoming a couple now, but held his tongue. That certainly wouldn't help anything. Trying to keep his demeanor, he made his way over to his two crewmates.

Out of the corner of his eye, Falco saw Fox making his way over towards them, but he didn't look up to greet him. He was still a bit scared, and didn't want to face him if he was still as angry as before. When Fox reached the table, he didn't say a word. He remained standing and placed his hands on the end of the table in between where the two were seated. Nobody said a word or made a move.

Fox realized they must still be afraid, and felt a pang of guilt for it. He had begun to feel bad about what happened, realizing that he had probably overreacted. These people were essentially his family, and he wanted no such animosity to stand between them.

Fox broke the silence. "I just came here to say…I'm sorry."

The tension in the room was somewhat alleviated. Both Falco and Krystal looked up and towards their captain, but Fox still stared at the floor.

"I wasn't thinking. I let my emotions get the better of me. I couldn't help but think that what happened was totally your faults. But after thinking about it, you guys had no control over it. I'm as much to blame for it. It was my idea to start drinking in the first place. If anything, it's my fault what happened with you two."

Krystal gently put her hand on Fox's, but he still couldn't look at her. "Fox, you didn't know. It was just an accident. You know that we're both really, really sorry and would take it back in a second."

"Yeah, I know."

Falco felt awkward and tried to lighten up the mood. "Yeah, man. Besides, if I really wanted Krystal, do you think I would've waited this long to do something about it?"

Fox couldn't help but laugh. His best friend was just trying to make him feel better. Fox looked up at him and smiled lightly. "Thanks…really. I feel like an ass for what I did. I'm sorry I hit you."

"It's cool, dude. I would've done the same thing. Maybe even worse."

Fox laughed again, knowing he was right. "Ok. I'm glad you both are ok with me. I really felt like shit."

Krystal said, "Fox, we felt just as bad as you did. I'm just glad we're all over it…hopefully."

Fox replied, "I think so. If you'll excuse me though, I'm really freakin' tired. All these emotions just drained me. I'm going to sleep for a while."

"Ok. Maybe I'll join you," Krystal said as she winked. Fox just chuckled a bit as he turned to leave the room.

Falco turned to the vixen. "Well that went well."

Krystal nodded. "Definitely. I'm glad. But hey, I'm going to leave too. I need some alone time with Fox I think."

Falco laughed. "Right. Alone time," he said while making air quotes.

She just rolled her eyes, not even bothering to respond. After she placed her dishes in the sink and left the room, Falco was left alone to think. He still felt a bit badly about what happened, but at least everything was ok now. He knew the feeling would pass, and he felt substantially better then before. He just hoped nothing like that would ever happen again.

_The next time we go drinking, I'm either going to contain myself, or get so shit-faced so fast that I won't even have time to think with my dick. Probably won't be a hard decision…heh…_


End file.
